Paul Revere - Later Years: Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing, and Politics

Later Years: Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing, and Politics

After the war, Revere opened a hardware and home goods store and later became interested in metal work beyond gold and silver. By 1788 he had invested some of the profits from his expanding silverworking trade in the construction of a large furnace. He soon opened an iron foundry in Boston's North End that produced utilitarian cast iron items such as stove backs and window weights, marketed to a broad segment of Boston's population. After mastering the iron casting process and realizing greater profits from this new product line, he identified a burgeoning market for church bells in the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening that followed the war. Beginning in 1792 he became one of America's best-known bell casters, working with sons Paul Jr. and Joseph Warren Revere in the firm Paul Revere & Sons. This firm cast the first bell made in Boston and ultimately produced hundreds of bells, a number of which remain in operation to this day.

In 1794, Revere decided to take the next step in the evolution of his business, again finding a novel use for his furnace that could create a new product line and reach another untapped market for manufactured goods. Revere expanded his bronze casting work by casting cannon for the federal government, state governments, and private clients. Although the government often had trouble paying him on time, its large orders inspired him to deepen his contracting and seek additional product lines of interest to the military. By 1795, a growing percentage of his foundry's business came from a new product, copper bolts, spikes, and other fittings that he sold to merchants and the Boston naval yard for ship construction. In 1801, Revere became a pioneer in the production of rolled copper, opening North America's first copper mill south of Boston in Canton. Copper from the Revere Copper Company was used to cover the original wooden dome of the Massachusetts State House in 1802. His copper and brass works eventually grew, through sale and corporate merger, into a large corporation, Revere Copper and Brass, Inc.

Revere remained politically active throughout his life. Revere's business plans in the late 1780s were often stymied by a shortage of adequate money in circulation. Alexander Hamilton's national policies regarding banks and industrialization exactly matched his dreams, and he became an ardent Federalist committed to building a robust economy and a powerful nation. He continued to participate in local discussions of political issues even after his retirement in 1811, and in 1814 circulated a petition offering the government the services of Boston's artisans in protecting Boston during the War of 1812. Revere died on May 10, 1818, at the age of 83, at his home on Charter Street in Boston. He is buried in the Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street.